What about storms? Can humans help prevent the severity of storms. No! “The Lord sent thunder and hail, and fire darted to the ground. And the Lord rained hail on the land of Egypt” (Exodus 9:23). God controls storms and how much wind, thunder, lightning and hail is produced. Hail forms in strong thunderstorm clouds, particularly those with intense updrafts, high liquid water content, great vertical extent, large water droplets, and where a good portion of the cloud layer is below freezing. These types of strong updrafts can also produce tornados. “He casts out His hail like morsels … He sends out His word and melts them” (Psalm 147:17-18). As for the firework show in the sky darting to the ground, “He makes lightning for the rain” (Psalm 135:7). “His lightnings light the world” (Psalm 97:4).
God created the weather patterns. “The wind goes toward the south, and turns around to the north; the wind whirls about continually, and comes again on its circuit” (Ecclesiastes 1:6). Meteorologists study things in the air. In 350 B.C., Aristotle (considered the founder of meteorology) is credited in discovering the global wind patterns. Winds were named by the direction from which they blew. The earth is encircled by six major wind belts, three in each hemisphere. All six belts move north in the northern summer and south in the northern winter. One problem with this discovery. God already revealed the wind pattern in Ecclesiastes (read 1:6 again above) in approximately 935 B.C., approximately 585 years earlier.
God controls the wind. “He brings the wind out of His treasuries” (Psalm 135:7). “He caused an east wind to blow in the heavens; and by His power He brought in the south wind” (Psalm 78:26). God controls the direction of wind. “And the Lord turned a very strong west wind” (Exodus 10:19). God controls how strong the wind is. “The Lord brought an east wind on the land all that day and all that night” (Exodus 10:13). God controls how long the wind blows. “For He commands and raises the stormy wind, which lifts up the waves of the sea” (Psalm 107:25). God controls the tropical cyclone (hurricane, typhoon, etc.), which grows in strength over the warm seas evaporation.
“But the Lord sent out a great wind on the sea, and there was a mighty tempest on the sea, so that the ship was about to be broken up” (Jonah 1:4). God controls what the wind targets. “Behold, a whirlwind of the Lord has gone forth in fury— A violent whirlwind!” (Jeremiah 23:19). God controls the tornado. “After these things I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, on the sea, or on any tree” (Revelation 7:1). God controls the wind to not blow. “The Lord has His way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of His feet” (Nahum 1:3). God has a will and His way is the only way. Mankind has no influence whatsoever preventing the severity, direction or pattern of storms.
Since God has all authority and power when it comes to His creation, He can break the laws of nature. We call it supernatural power. Forty days and forty nights of rain is a supernatural event, never to happen again by the sign of His rainbow. Forty days of floodwaters covering the entire earth is supernatural. “And God made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters subsided” (Genesis 8:1). A supernatural wind caused the waters to go back to their borders. “But He said to them, ‘Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?’ Then He arose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm. So the men marveled, saying, ‘Who can this be, that even the winds and the sea obey Him?’” (Matthew 8:26-27). Jesus, the son of God, is His name.
“Now in the fourth watch of the night Jesus went to them, walking on the sea” (Matthew 14:25). Jesus made water His sidewalk. It was a supernatural event when Jesus made water into wine (John 4:46). “The Lord caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night, and made the sea into dry land, and the waters were divided” (Exodus 14:21). God used Moses to part the Red Sea. He used Joshua (Joshua 3:15-17), Elijah (2 Kings 2:7-8) and Elisha (2 Kings 2:13-14) to part the Jordan River on three occasions. In all four partings, they walked on dry land (as opposed to wet mud or sinking sand) while wind held the walls of water at bay by His command. And lest we forget the supernatural event of creation itself when the waters (in one day) were divided by a firmament to form the sky.
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NOTE: The preceding excerpt was taken from the book, “God on Climate Change: Worshipping creation instead of the Creator” by Jim Wear (the author of this blog)… available in paperback at Amazon.